Corporate websites need to make an effort to be more social — does yours?

A recent blog entry from Hubspot.com says corporate websites are guilty of producing boring content. “These sites end up being a time and financial drain without delivering the appropriate value to current and potential customers.” Sound familiar?

If you have heard comments like this around your campus or by prospective students, then you should sit down with others and reevaluate your site’s priorities. Hubspot’s suggestion: “Four Ways to Make Your Corporate Website More Social.”

Focused on engaging customers and empowering them to share with others, Hubspot suggests a level of interaction between the customers and the organization that does not exist when the website spews one-way messages.

While the article is focused on corporate websites and the opportunities available to them, there is a definite connection between what organizations do with customers and what institutions, more specifically admissions offices, do with prospective students and their families.

If the corporate world is looking to be more social, it’s time for you too. Finding ways to engage prospective students is a large part of what you do in admissions. It’s a no-brainer that you should have a variety of channels and multiple opportunities for students and parents to interact with you and more importantly — with each other. The key is to assess all the tools available to you and find those that will be most successful in your communication planning.

Hubspot sums up by asking “Do you have anything planned to make your website more social?” Ask yourself the same question and see what you can implement over the summer to engage your deposited students now and your prospective students this fall.

Read Hubspot’s “Four Ways to Make Your Corporate Web Site More Social.”

P.S.- The conversation continues in the comments that follow the blog post. Be sure to read!

Read more about our authors.  Annemarie Nagle is the Senior Marketing Executive for TargetX. Annemarie knew she had a passion for admissions and recruiting as a student tour guide. Since then, she has worked in higher education as an admission counselor and a dual role recruiting students and managing marketing communications.